Finding the Grace You Need




My friend Mike Endicott, is an Anglican priest who has a healing ministry headquartered in Wales, which was commissioned by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.

Mike emphasizes that Jesus Christ still heals, just as he did when he walked the earth, and that just as it was then, so now his healing is entirely a work of grace. Like salvation, it cannot be earned.

Knowing that I have been sick Mike recently sent an email containing a scripture and then a comment. I want to share them here:

The scripture: “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.”   Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV)

The comment is by Samuel Rutherford, who wrote about Grace almost 400 years ago! (Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian pastor who helped write the Westminster Confession of Faith.)

“Every man thinketh he is rich enough in grace, till he take out his purse, and... then he findeth it but poor and light in the day of a heavy trial. I found I had not enough to bear my expenses, and I should have fainted, if want and penury had not chased me to the store-house of all.”
Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664),          letter, Feb. 20, 1637

What Rutherford is saying is that if we have received by faith the free grace of God poured out for us in Jesus Christ, sometimes life squeezes us so tightly that it seems our supply of Grace is all gone. We need more. We have an empty purse.
Sometimes the circumstances of life are so difficult that it seems, again, that we have run out of Grace. We have no more grace left. We need more.
In such moments may our poverty and our lack cause us to run to and cast ourselves on the One whose supply of Grace is endless and infinite, even our Lord. “My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory.” Philippians 4:19.

Grace is not something you need once, it is something you need daily. It is something you need in abundance. Go to the Source, and keep coming back!

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” 1 Peter 5:10.

Winfield Casey Jones is a retired pastor and can be reached at wrjones2002@Gmail.com. This column first appeared in the Pearland and Friendswood Reporter New.

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